Thursday, 25 March 2010

Yet another rejection letter lands in my lap. That's two this week. Still, another two have gone out to redress the balance. Done my Writers' Club homework so I'm more-or-less up to date with my writing.It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.Edward de Bono

Saturday, 20 March 2010

Another rejection letter lands in my postbox.Time for another morale-boosting quote.Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.John Keats

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Quote of the day:You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success – but only if you persist.Isaac Asimov

Friday, 12 March 2010

I'm now well on the way to finishing the two stories based on my sister-in-law's recollections. Thanks to womagwriter for giving me the kick to get them down on paper. Also finished my Writers' Club homework. I can get on with my novel now. Plus all the other ideas for scripts, sketches, musicals etc. No shortage of ideas - just time.Quote of the day:Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.Sir Winston Churchill

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

Thanks to womagwriter for encouraging me to get on and write that story anyway. My sister-in-law actually told me some other stuff which happened about fifty years ago. I ought to get that down as well before someone beats me to it!Writers' Club last night. We are currently in the middle of a 'follow that story' project. This is where we each compile the first paragraph of a story and then pass it on to the next member to continue the plot for the next meeting. Eventually each story gets back to the originator who has to finish it off. My homework this week is to continue a story about a couple having a baby which the man knows might not be his. They also have to contend with his disapproving parents.Plenty to do - I'd better get on with it!

Monday, 8 March 2010

A news item today claims that German cycling tours of Britain in the years before WWII were actually covers for spying operations by Hitler Youth. My sister-in-law told me this story a while ago. She says they came to Tamworth in Staffordshire which is where I grew up.I had intended to use this as the basis for a short story but, now that it is in the public domain, it won't have the same originality and impact.Damn!Just goes to show - you should grab your opportunities when you can.

About Me

I have stories published in Take a Break's Fiction Feast, That's Life (Australia), The Weekly News, People's Friend, Yours and The Lincolnshire Echo. I also have a short story published in the charity anthology 100 Stories for Queensland.
I am a member of Trowell Writers' Trust and Nottingham Writers' Club. I have had several first, second and third places in their short story competitions over the last few years. In 2008 I was runner up in the National Association of Writers' Groups annual competition for short stories. In May 2009 I was awarded second place in Writing Magazine short story competition and the entry is available on their website.